A Russian soldier examines one of thousands of artillery shells filled with lethal nerve gas at the Russian chemical weapons storage site near Shchuch'ye. / Russian army archives

by Jim Michaels, USA TODAY

by Jim Michaels, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON - If Syria avoids a U.S. strike and agrees to give up its chemical weapons, Libya may serve as a model for how to remove and destroy its deadly stockpiles, analysts say.

In 2003, Libya renounced its weapons of mass destruction programs and agreed to abide by the chemical weapons convention and other international treaties.

A key difference: Syria is in the middle of a civil war that would make verification difficult, said Tom Collina, research director for the Arms Control Association, an independent group.

"How do we make sure Syria is coming forward with all of its stockpiles?" Collina said, calling it a "manageable challenge."

No agreement has been concluded with Syria and it is not clear whether Syrian leader Bashar Assad and his Russian allies are serious about the offer or whether it is a gambit to delay a U.S. strike.

International capabilities to deal with chemical weapons have been improving over the years, analysts say.

The United States has continued to develop its abilities to secure and destroy chemical weapons. Much of the expertise resides in the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which was formed in 1998 to consolidate the military's anti-WMD capabilities.

In April, DTRA Director Kenneth Myers told a Senate committee that the United States provided technical assistance to help destroy chemical weapons at two Russian facilities. The agency has worked with Russia's government to destroy its caches of chemical weapons.

A spokesman for the agency, Dan Gaffney, said the agency deploys its specialists at the request of U.S. combatant commanders. The agency has in the past sent teams to Iraq and Afghanistan, Gaffney said.

The agency is also working in Libya, where in 2003 its then-leader, Moammar Gadhafi, shocked the world when he agreed to relinquish his nuclear and chemical weapons program, though he was under pressure from Western governments and his decision came in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Gadhafi was increasingly isolated and fearful.

"They joined (the chemical weapons ban treaty) after considerable pressure from Western governments," said Michael Luhan, a spokesman for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which supervises the chemical ban treaty.

Almost immediately after their surprise announcement, Libya destroyed 3,500 bombs designed to carry mustard gas by using bulldozers to bury them. The process was supervised by international inspectors.

Libya also destroyed 25 metric tons of sulfur mustard gas, using a mobile facility that was established under contract with an Italian firm. Under the process, the deadly gas is first injected with a chemical that reduces the toxicity of the mustard gas, Luhan said.

Libya paid for the destruction of its stockpiles, Luhan said.

The destruction of Libya's chemical stpockpiles was finally completed this year by a new government that had replaced Gadhafi after he was killed by a rebellion that overthrew his regime in 2011.

The new government subsequently found a previously undeclared cache of shells loaded with mustard gas. The cache has been secured and is awaiting destruction, Luhan said.

Neutralizing Syria's stockpiles could be more complex than Libya's. Syria has stockpiles of mustard gas and the nerve agents VX and sarin.